Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.
In his letter informing his provincial counterparts of the agenda for the first ministers' conference, the Prime Minister wrote: "The afternoon session will focus on the social aspects of our policies and programs, and in particular on preserving a viable and sustainable social security system for Canadians". But we are far from having a social security system in Canada as it is.
Are we to understand from what he wrote that, far from withdrawing from provincial areas of jurisdiction, the Prime Minister is set to step right into the whole social programs area and take it over, even though transfer payments to the provinces have been cut drastically?